Ghosts II - What Happened Afterwards
by superfly31
Summary: It's been months since the mayor tried to kick Maestro out. But, what happens when Maestro starts to go crazy because of this one instance? Would he return to normal?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: Ever Since Then…**

"Where's my tea?!" I heard the master, Maestro, shout from the kitchen. I flinched at the sound of his voice, which was something I'd never done before. He usually sounded so friendly and kind whenever he talked or shouted across the room. Now his voice had a sharpened edge to it, which I had rightfully deemed as "strange".

"I-it's almost done, master! I'm just trying to figure out this Keurig machine! I've never dealt with this contraption before!" I stammered. I had the K-cup in my hand, but I wasn't sure on where to place it. I'd lived in William Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_ play since the day it was made, which was a very long time ago. New-age contraptions were SO not my forte!

"Well, hurry it up! You're not a human anymore. You're a floating spirit, so you can float around and get things done!" Maestro shouted back. Panicking, I hurriedly tried to see if I could open any flaps. Once I found one that fit the K-cup, I shoved the cup into the hole. Then I shoved a cup underneath the pourer-thingy and hit the BREW button. Not bad for a first attempt.

When the tea was finished, I brought the steaming-hot cup over to the kitchen, where Maestro was sitting at the clear-glass table. His arms were hugging his head, which was pressed firmly on the glass surface.

"Hey, the tea's finished. Hope you like English Breakfast," I said, nudging him with my finger. Maestro looked up, and when I saw his face, I reeled back a little bit. He looked terrible now. His hair was dull and flat, and his face wore slightly dark bags under his eyes.

"Hmm? Thanks, Juliet. I appreciate it," he muttered, taking a small sip of the K-cup tea. I waited to see what he thought of it, but all I got was his head clunking against the table instead.

"Maestro, why have you been like this? Ever since the confrontation with the mayor, you've been…," I started to say, but before I could finish my statement, Maestro jumped up from the table. The tea on the table spilled a little bit at this sudden movement.

"Juliet Capulet, don't you DARE bring up that day! I may have made peace with the townspeople, but that evil mayor still taints my mind!" he shouted. I looked at him in shock when he said those words. He was usually quick to forgive and forget. I know it was a more serious matter this time around, but still. Maestro always found some way to forgive people.

"I'm sorry. I won't bring it up again. Why don't you go upstairs and take a nap? I'll see if Romeo wants to finish the tea," I said, gently taking the teacup. Maestro groaned and stood up, staggering out of the kitchen. I sighed and brought the teacup into the ballroom, which served as the main room for the inhabitants of the house. My lover, Romeo Montague, was floating on his back, not giving a damn about anything in the world. When I approached him, he stopped floating and smiled at me.

"Hi, Juliet. Ooh, you brought tea for me? Thank you!" he exclaimed, taking the barely-touched tea from me. But instead of drinking the tea right away, he started eyeing me with great concern. I guess he saw my growing depression.

"Hey, what's the matter? Did Maestro light into you?" Romeo asked, taking my transparent hand. I nodded, which made him drop the cup to the ground. I heard it shatter into a million pieces, but I really didn't care at the moment.

"He's not himself anymore. Ever since that day with the mayor, Maestro has been acting weirdly. His hair's gone flat, and his face is completely dismal. Not to mention the fact that he only yells at the spirits instead of talking to them now. Romeo, what are we going to do?" I asked. I was desperate now. If there wasn't a way to fix Maestro, then I might as well just go to the afterlife with my Montague lover.

"Let's just wait, Julie. Let's just wait and see if everything will look up later," Romeo suggested. I sighed and put my hand on his chest. Only time would tell. _Only time would tell._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Strange Acts**

"Maestro! Dinnertime!" I called out, bringing out the last meal I'd made. The other spirits were sitting in their respective spots at the long dining table, ready to dive into my homemade cuisine. But I didn't hear footsteps come to the dining room, which was really odd.

"Well, that's weird. Doesn't the master usually come the minute you say it's dinnertime?" Mercutio asked from his spot at the table. Instead of responding to him, I walked into the foyer and headed upstairs, walking in the direction of Maestro's room. His room isn't hard to miss. It's a large door that's made of cracking wood, which he simply refused to replace. When I got to said door, I gently pushed it open, not even bothering to knock before entering.

"Maestro, didn't you hear me? It's dinner-," I started to say, but gasped when I saw his room. Pictures of the town mayor were taped and stapled to the clear white wall, and if you looked at the ground, papers with cursive writing were strewn all over. I walked over to one of the paper piles and picked one up. In perfect script, it read, "KILL THE MAYOR". No. No, this wasn't the Maestro that I knew and loved. Before I could call his name again, I heard something being scraped. A knife.

"Maestro?" I called again, turning in the direction of the sound. Instead of seeing him there, I saw a closed door, which led to his in-room facilities. I dropped the paper and walked towards the door, putting my ear on it to find out what was going on.

"_He will pay. He'll pay for everything. He'll pay for trying to kick me out. He'll pay in his own crimson blood_," Maestro muttered from inside the bathroom. Then I heard the scraping again, which got me to feel afraid. He definitely wasn't himself anymore. Without thinking, I pushed the door open, wanting nothing more than to stop him. Sure enough, Maestro was sharpening a kitchen knife with a well-rounded rock.

"What…are you DOING in here?!" he rasped, his eyes taking on the psychotic look. I held my hands up in surrender, letting him know that I wasn't planning to hurt him or anything.

"I heard what you said. You're _not_ killing the mayor, no matter _what_ he did," I said. I expected him to turn the knife on me, but instead, he tried to deny it. There was no sense in doing so, since I'd heard him clearly through the door.

"I'm not planning to kill the mayor. That's purely ridiculous," Maestro said, attempting to flush the knife in the toilet. That didn't work, since the toilet water started coming up.

"Then explain the knife and the pictures you have of the mayor on your walls. I've cleaned your room every day to know that that's a new thing. That and the papers on the ground that say 'KILL THE MAYOR'," I pointed out. Maestro glared at me with serious contempt, which scared me now that I knew he was slowly turning into a psychopath. Any other time, and I wouldn't have felt so afraid.

"Juliet, I suggest that you get out of here. If you don't, _I'll kill you_," he said. I gulped and floated backwards, suddenly feeling scared for my life. Maestro usually said things like, "I'll kill you!" or whatever, but he usually meant no harm by those words. It was usually out of fun, and I never felt afraid whenever he said that. But now it had a whole other meaning to it, and I didn't like that. Even transparent spirits can be hurt by physical attacks too.

"I-I'm sorry for intruding," I stammered, and with the fear still lingering in me, I floated out of the bedroom and into the hall, not even bothering to look back.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: The Next Day…**

"And that's the latest on the fashion show! In other news, a family in Normal Valley was brutally murdered, with only a note left behind. It appears that a person named…_Maestro_ wrote it," the reporter on the TV said. The minute she said those words, I stopped dusting the lamp table and paused. Romeo, who was helping me straighten out the room as well, stopped too. He looked at me, his eyes filled with sudden concern.

"Juliet, you went to go check on him last night, right? Did he act strangely to you?" he asked. I looked at him and nodded, fighting back tears. Romeo dropped the sofa pillow that he'd been holding and put his hands on me.

"Listen, if he did anything to you while you were up there, I want you to tell me right away. Did he do anything?" he added. I nodded, the tears finally pouring out.

"I went up to his room to check on him, and when I walked in, I saw pictures of the mayor attached to his walls. I also saw papers that said, 'KILL THE MAYOR', and then I heard a knife being scraped. I walked in that direction and realized that it was coming from his bathroom. Then I heard him say that the mayor would pay in blood or something like that, and when I questioned his motives, Maestro threatened to kill me. And it wasn't one of those I'm-messing-with-you kinds!" I exclaimed. Romeo looked at me with widened eyes, like he couldn't believe that Maestro would do such a thing. Not like I blamed him. I hadn't expected it either.

"And now he's murdered an innocent family here in our hometown," I said, sobbing into Romeo's transparent chest. He patted my head and then let me go, placing his hands on my shoulders.

"Juliet, you won't have to worry anymore. We'll leave tonight, okay? We'll leave and just haunt some other abandoned house. Maestro can't do anything to us if we just go," he assured me. I nodded, agreeing to that idea. Anything was better than living with that psychopath that I called "Maestro".


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: The Party**

"Oh, Romeo! Juliet! _Where are youuuu_?" Maestro's voice echoed. I flinched at hearing his voice. I really hated doing that, but after he murdered that innocent family, I had no choice but to. I reluctantly floated out of my room and went downstairs, wondering what was going on in that psycho's brain now. When I got to the first step, I saw Romeo standing with Maestro, not knowing what he was doing there.

"Oh, my dear! Where's that lovely red dress that you wore in that Shakespearean play? Juliet Capulet, I expected better of you!" Maestro exclaimed. Before I could ask why I would even wear that again, Romeo jumped in with an explanation.

"He wants us to attend a party at the mayor's manor, but he wants us to show up in our costumes from William Shakespeare's play," he said. I nodded, understanding his point right then and there.

"Okay. I'll get it."

…

When we got to the party, I saw millions of partygoers gathered around a giant tent, martini and wine glasses in their hands. I inspected myself and made sure that no part of me was transparent, since looking like a dead spirit would be completely wrong outside. After giving myself the once-over, I took a deep breath and waited for Maestro to park the car. All I needed now was for him to leave us to our independence. When he did so, Romeo and I planned to watch him from afar. We weren't going to let him murder another innocent family. Not like the one he killed before. When we entered the tent, there were even more partygoers inside.

"All right, you know what we're going to do, right?" Romeo asked me, putting on the mask that he wore in the play. I nodded, putting on my own mask as well.

"Yes. We are to make sure that Maestro doesn't commit any harm to anybody here. If he does, one of us is expected to possess him and pull him away from the desired victims," I said. That really was our plan for the party, since we didn't have enough time to brainstorm it. We'd actually planned on escaping the house with Mercutio and the others, but then Maestro slammed this stupid party on us.

When we found a good hiding spot deep inside, Romeo and I floated up and out of sight. Thankfully, we also had a good view of Maestro, so we could hide _and_ keep a close eye on him. At the moment, he was merely chatting away with an unnamed female, so everything was safe for the time being. All of a sudden, Romeo started tugging at my red-velvet sleeve, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"The mayor's here. We have to warn him," he said. I looked around at the party scene below, and that was when I saw the town mayor. He didn't know the danger that he'd walk into. Then I remembered something from yesterday.

"That's right! When I walked into Maestro's room last night, I found that he was planning to kill the mayor! We have to go!" I exclaimed. With that, Romeo and I shifted back to our ghost forms and flew down towards the mayor. As if knowing that we were there, the mayor turned around and saw us. Before he could scream at the sight of dead spirits, we put our ghostly hands on his mouth, muffling his words.

"Listen! We have to get you out of here! Believe it or not, Maestro is planning to murder you! I witnessed it last night! Please, you have to go!" I exclaimed. Romeo and I then let go of the mayor's mouth, allowing him to speak again.

"Believe me, guys. I know what Maestro's capable of, especially since he killed that family in our hometown. All right, what do you want me to do? I don't see Maestro anywhere, so I don't know which direction I should head into," the mayor said. Without saying anything more, I floated into his body, completely possessing him.

"Juliet! What are you-," Romeo started to say, but I shushed him immediately. We didn't need Maestro to know that I possessed the mayor all willy-nilly JUST LIKE THAT. Possessing people was against the rules in our house, so if we got busted for doing exactly that, there'd be punishment to deal out. With Maestro's growing psychosis, the punishment would be WORSE.

"Quiet, Montague! With the mayor being in my control, I can sneak him out of this party without Maestro catching us. Besides, he's WAY into that skanky woman to even notice, but if you say anything, we're dead meat. Got it, Rome?" I said, calling my dead lover by his pet name. Romeo nodded, understanding where I was coming from. With that, I started moving the mayor's body towards the tent exit, eager to get him out of there. But the next thing I knew, Romeo's face was contorted with panic, pointing to something behind me. I turned around and gasped when I saw who it was.

It was Maestro, and he was planning to kill us now.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: Getting Out of There**

"Why, hello there, Mr. Mayor! Fancy seeing you this evening!" Maestro said with forced enthusiasm. Right then and there, I knew he was scheming murder crimes in his head, and I refused to let him act on it. I was trying to help the mayor escape, and if Maestro thought that he could kill him off, he had another thing coming.

"It's nice to see you too, Maestro. You look great tonight. Well, I must be off. I promised my wife that I'd come home at a certain time so I could meet her sister for dinner. I'll see you soon, okay?" I said, hoping that the excuse would work. But before I could make my way to the tent flap, Maestro put his hand on the arm that I didn't own.

"Juliet, let's face it. I've caught you in the act. You don't have to possess the mayor anymore," he said. I felt sweat run down the back of my neck. He caught me? How was that even POSSIBLE? I had to feign confusion now.

"What are you talking about? Who's Juliet?" I asked, trying my best to look confused. Maestro merely smiled, which freaked the 4-letter-S-word out of me.

"Juliet, leave this man's body right now!" he suddenly growled. I narrowed my eyes and picked up a folding chair. Maestro's eyes widened right on the spot.

"No, Maestro. _I won't_," I retorted, and without putting any thought into my actions, I threw the chair at him with as much force as possible. He fell down in complete shock, clearly not expecting the cruel and hard blow. The female partygoer that he'd been conversing with went directly to his aid. Even though she'd only known him for a short time, she was more than willing to play lover. While she was trying to take care of him, I ran out into the nighttime and far away from the party tent, with Romeo floating on my heels.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: Confrontation**

When we finally got back to Someplace Else, which is my home address, I let myself out of the mayor's body. I waited for him to regain his composure, and once he did, I flung open the tall doors and shoved him inside. Romeo slammed the doors behind us, and I continued to push him down to the ballroom.

"Great! I'm back in this stupid hellhole again! I still have those memories of last time engraved into my head!" the mayor exclaimed once I let him go. Romeo slapped him upside the head in response, which I definitely didn't oppose.

"Well, last time, Maestro wasn't planning to kill you, compared to what's going on NOW! Now, come with Romeo and me. We're going to shove you into the dumbwaiter!" I replied, snatching the mayor's arm. Without saying anything more, I dragged him into the kitchen, where I saw the dumbwaiter open in plain sight. I looked over at Romeo in alarm.

"Romeo Montague, you'd better tell me why the dumbwaiter shaft's open!" I exclaimed, almost afraid to go near the shaft itself. Romeo shook his head and whimpered, clearly not knowing why it was open. Before we could even move, a cloud of purple smoke appeared in the shaft space, and once it dissipated, I found myself staring at Maestro himself. He was smiling at us, and it was a smile that would put you out of your misery.

"Pleasure to see you this fine evening, my darling dead spirits," he said. The minute he said those words, Romeo and I turned ourselves into living humans and stood in front of the mayor.

"What do you want from us? All we want to do is protect the mayor from you of all people! Conspiring to kill him, my arse!" I exclaimed. But Maestro didn't seem the least bit stunned. He hopped out of the dumbwaiter and folded his arms, facing Romeo and me.

"Juliet, I'm surprised at you. When I found you wandering the streets of England after black magic spilled on your pathetic play, I was the one who took you in after you couldn't find your way to the afterlife. I've been taking care of you all these years, and you repay me with a sharp tongue? Mm-mm. Not in my house," he said. I chose to shut up, but apparently, the mayor wasn't going to keep his mouth shut. I wish he would, but he clearly wasn't very bright when it came to that.

"Maestro, they have every right to treat you like this. You want to kill me, huh? What did I ever do to you besides that one time?" he asked. Maestro's smile turned into a death glare, which was something I'd learned to fear. Romeo started shrinking back when he saw that glare happen.

"That one time was enough for me. You think you can kick me out of my own hometown? I've spent my entire 419 years here, and you have the audacity to try and kick me out? That was enough to make me conspire to kill you. And now that you're here…I _can_," Maestro said. Before I could do anything, the mayor was flung into the dumbwaiter, the door closing right after.

"Hey, wait a sec-," I started to say, but then the door opened and Romeo and I were flung inside. Surprisingly, we were all able to fit inside that small shaft. Maestro smiled triumphantly and grabbed hold of the shaft door.

"Have a good trip, kiddies. See you on the other end."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: Murder**

When the dumbwaiter finally finished falling, the shaft door opened immediately, spilling us all out. When we got to our feet and collected our senses, we saw Maestro standing there, a smooth white apron pulled over the front of his body. Unfortunately, his apron was stained with crimson-red blood, and his hand was clasped around a large kitchen knife.

"Finally! I've been waiting for that dumbwaiter shaft to come down!" he said, tapping the knife against his other hand. The minute he said that, he shot his hand out at us, a shining white beam flying out of his palm. Before Romeo and I could react, the beam divided into two separate rays and hit us square in the stomachs. After that happened, we decided to go back to our true phantom forms, but when we tried that, we realized we couldn't revert.

"What the…I can't change back!" I exclaimed, trying with all my might to turn back into a spirit. Maestro smiled in response, placing the knife back into a chopping block. So _that's_ where it went.

"That's the whole point, Capulet girl. Your 'living' form is now permanent, as I will be…_putting you to sleep_ with you like this," he explained. I looked at him with a facial expression that had extreme horror and shock mixed into one. I'd been living with and loving him since 1594, the date that _Romeo and Juliet_ had been tainted with black magic, causing Romeo and me to leap out. The man that we'd turned to after failing to find the afterlife…was the one who was tainted now.

"What's going _on_ with you, Maestro? This isn't you! This isn't the man who took us in when the path to the afterlife wasn't available! What happened to you? I know what the mayor did wasn't good and all, but you've got to let it go. You're still living here in Normal Valley. Let's just move on, okay?" I said. But instead of agreeing to that, Maestro's expression turned into a seriously angry one.

"Fine. I'll move on…when you, Romeo, and the mayor _DIE!_" he shrieked, and before I could make any movements, an invisible force knocked me into the wall, shackles wrapping around my wrists and ankles. I tried to scream out for Romeo and the mayor to run, but they were slammed into the wall as well, shackles tying them in by the wrists and ankles too.

"Oh, god! Lord, help us!" Romeo practically cried. Without thinking, I tried to turn into a spirit again, as did Romeo. It still didn't work. That magic spell talk was real. Holy crap, there was no escape for us! I watched as Maestro picked up a meat cleaver and brought it over to us. It was so bloodstained that I didn't see a single shine of silver, which made me mentally freak out. If I really freaked out right then and there, I probably would've died already.

"This cleaver has been with me for so many years that I can't even count anymore. But as you can see, I didn't just use it for various forms of poultry. Unless, of course, you count chopped-up flesh as meat," he said, swiping his finger along the dried blood. I started hyperventilating immediately, which made Maestro flash a super-fake sympathetic look in my direction.

"Aw, is the poor little Capulet a scaredy-cat? Guess I got to make sure you conquer your fear. Now, how on Earth am I going to make you do so? Oh! I know! I'll tap you with the cleaver and test your reaction!" he told me, raising the cleaver. I tried to open my mouth to scream, but then the cleaver came down on my red-sleeved arm, cutting through my skin.

"Maestro…stop! Please, I beg of you! Stop!" I shouted, jerking in all directions. Maestro pulled the cleaver out, and thrust it into my other arm, blood pouring out. I didn't realize that I had that much blood in my body.

"Well, Juliet? Did you conquer your fear yet?!" he shrieked, twisting it in a little further. Tears started flowing out of my eyes and stained my cheeks, which was something that had never happened before. Once again, Maestro pulled his weapon out, but this time, he threw it…into my stomach. I gasped in horror, my eyes starting to blur. I couldn't believe it. My friend…my formerly wonderful friend…was killing me. And he'd killed that family in Normal Valley. Why was this happening? Why was Maestro going psycho?!

"Why…?" I gasped out, but after getting a few more gasps in, my eyes shut all by themselves, blackness consuming my vision.

I could no longer serve as a wandering spirit.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: Everything…Was Just a Big, Sick Joke?**

"Juliet! Juliet, wake up! Please, I'm begging you! Wake up!" I heard Romeo say. I fought to open my eyes, but the minute they were opened, I saw my lover standing over me. I put my hand to my forehead, sitting up on the surface that I was on.

"Romeo? Is that you?" I replied. All of a sudden, Romeo wrapped his arms around me, sobbing into my dress. It was most definitely him.

"Juliet! Oh, my stars! I thought you were dead!" he exclaimed. I hugged him back, and that was when I saw my arms. There were large, cleaver-made cuts that had dried blood coming out. It freaked me out, so I let go of Romeo immediately. He looked at me in confusion, but then he saw my arms.

"So Maestro…really intended to kill me, huh? Should've known he was going to do that. He was already acting strange when I found him huddled in the bathroom with a kitchen knife," I said, but that was when a flood of memories came back. The mayor. Maestro was planning to ultimately kill him when he got the opportunity. I needed to stop him!

"The mayor! Maestro's going to murder him!" I shouted, hopping off the table that I had been on. If I didn't stop Maestro…the mayor would die! Nobody could stop that psycho…except for me! And maybe Romeo too, but I didn't really know.

After a long ride down the dumbwaiter shaft, I was back in that awful room where I had been brutally murdered. Wait until he saw that his killing victim came back to life from the PERMANENTLY DEAD! With that in mind, I rolled up my sleeves, making my cleaver cuts visible. I walked through the room and searched for Maestro and the mayor. Maestro was going to pay for all the deeds he'd done. He'd pay for planning to kill the mayor. He'd pay for killing that family. And he'd _definitely _pay for trying to kill me. When I got to the back wall, I saw a hidden door there. Without thinking, I grabbed a large kitchen knife from the abandoned chopping block and shoved my head through the door, creating a large hole.

"HEEEEEERRRREE'S JULIET!" I shouted, making direct eye contact with Maestro. He screamed in response and dropped a large pot that he'd been holding. With that, I used the knife and chopped down large bits of the door, making it perfectly accessible for me to enter. I wielded the knife like a killer and walked over to him, Maestro backing away as I did so.

"You sick bastard. You're going to pay for everything you've done. You conspired to kill the mayor. You murdered that innocent family, and you were about to bring Romeo into it. Not to mention the fact that you tried to kill me. Have you forgotten that dead people can't die twice? Look at me! Just _look what you did to me!_" I shrieked, tightening my grip on the knife.

"Juliet, you've got it all wrong! I didn't kill that family! It was all a big joke! Look at the guests at the table. They're that family! It was a joke!" Maestro flailed. I looked over at the table, where I saw dinner guests sitting patiently. They nodded their heads, agreeing with what Maestro was saying. But that didn't mean that he could get away with what he had done to me.

"That may have been a big joke, but what about me? Do you consider these cleaver cuts to be a joke? These are _real_, Maestro. They're _real_. But did I succumb to them? No, I didn't, because the dead can't succumb anymore! You know what that means? It means that I can get back at you for the cuts you left on me!" I exclaimed. Before Maestro could reply, I snatched him by the arm and dragged him out of the broken door. Then I shackled him to the wall that he'd stuck me on earlier.

"W-wait! What are you doing to me?!" he freaked, but instead of responding, I swiped the knife against his cheek, leaving a deep, crimson-red gash running down. Maestro looked at me in horror.

"This is for what you did to me. What, you expected me to let you off the hook so easily? Well, that wasn't going to happen," I told him. Maestro started flailing around, desperately trying to get out of the shackles. Pathetic. He knew it wasn't going to work.

"You can't do this to me! You can't!" he shouted, the blood dripping onto his white shirt. I sighed and climbed into the open dumbwaiter, getting ready to ride the shaft back up. But not before I said my final three words to him.

"_It's already done_."

_**FIN**_


End file.
